Brandon Archuleta

Brandon J. Archuleta is Visiting Chamberlain Project Fellow in the Politics Department for the 2026-27 academic year. He teaches courses on American politics, public policy and grand strategy. His research explores U.S. national security policy, defense strategy, veterans’ affairs and the all-volunteer force.

Brandon was a U.S. Army officer for more than 20 years, retiring from active duty in 2026. His final military assignment was chief of strategy development in the Plans, Policy, and Strategy Directorate at U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, Germany. A veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, his previous positions include strategist to the 25th U.S. Secretary of the Army in the Pentagon, strategic advisor to the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Asia in the Office of International Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, strategic planner in the Army War Plans Division at the Pentagon, and assistant professor of American politics in the Department of Social Sciences at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. 

Brandon is an adjunct senior fellow in the National Security Human Capital Program at the Center for a New American Security in Washington, DC, a Clements Center national security fellow at the University of Texas at Austin, and a former adjunct assistant professor of security studies at Georgetown University. He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), recipient of the CFR International Affairs Fellowship for 2020-2021, and president of the West Point class of 2006.

A public policy scholar by training, Brandon has written extensively on U.S. defense policy, plans and strategy. His research and commentary have been published in Armed Forces and Society, Joint Forces Quarterly, The Policy Studies Journal, War on the Rocks, Defense One, and the San Diego Union Tribune. His book, Twenty Years of Service: The Politics of Military Pension Policy and the Long Road to Reform, was published by the University Press of Kansas in 2020 and provides the most comprehensive examination of U.S. military pension policy in a generation. He most recently contributed a book chapter, “Money Matters: Modernizing the Military Compensation System,” in Bend But Do Not Break: Shaping the Future of the All-Volunteer Force, published by Oxford University Press in 2026.

Brandon holds a B.S. in American politics from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, an M.P.Aff. in international affairs from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and a Ph.D. in government, both from the University of Texas at Austin.